1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manual operation button of an electronic device, and more specifically, relates to a power button disposed on a front face of a television receiver.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, an arrangement of the type disclosed in Japanese patent application No. 2005-50750 (patent document 1) utilizing a bendable thin hinge has been adopted in manual operation buttons of electronic devices, since it exerts the required functions via a simple assembly operation and without using metal components such as spindles and springs.
One exemplary structure of such prior art manual operation button adopting the above hinge arrangement and used in electronic devices such as the television receiver will be described with reference to FIG. 14. The electronic device includes a casing 100, a switch 101 fixed to the inner side of the casing 100, and a manual operation button 102 for operating the switch 101 by the manual operation of a user. The casing 100 has a mounting hole 103 for exposing a portion of the manual operation button 102 to the exterior of the casing 100. The manual operation button 102 comprises a manual operation plane 104 exposed to the exterior of the casing 100 so as to be directly touched and pressed by the user, a switch pressing portion 105 extended toward the rear direction of the manual operation plane 104, a mounting portion 106 for mounting onto the casing 100, and a hinge portion 107 formed as a bendable thin wall connecting the manual operation plane 104 and the mounting portion 106. Here, the manual operation button 102 is formed via integral molding. According to the manual operation button 102 adopting such hinge structure, when the user presses the manual operation plane 104 in the direction of the arrow as illustrated in FIG. 15, the switch pressing portion 105 pivots around the hinge portion 107 and moves to operate the switch 101.
However, since according to patent document 1 and the manual operation button 102 having the prior art structure, the hinge portion 107 is out of range of the outer projection plane of the manual operation plane 104, it is difficult to increase the size of the manual operation plane 104, or in other words, it is difficult to enlarge the operable region. Here, the term “outer projection plane of the manual operation plane” refers to the outer shape of the manual operation plane 104 subjected to projection from the front direction, and the term “operable region” refers to the region in which the user can operate the switch 101 on the front face of the manual operation plane 104.
Furthermore, since the manual operation plane 104 requiring a high molding accuracy to be provided with characters and patterns is integrally molded with other components that do not require such high molding accuracy as the manual operation plane 104, there is a drawback in that the whole manual operation button 102 must be formed with high molding accuracy, by which the molding costs are increased.
Moreover, since the manual operation button includes the hinge portion 107, there is a drawback in that if the manual operation plane 104 is pressed in particular ways, such as in the direction of the arrow of FIG. 16, the upper portion of the manual operation button 102 protruded outward from the front face of the casing 100.